


Trial of Water

by Abyssal_Agito



Category: Girls und Panzer
Genre: Drowning, F/F, Underwater Peril
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:47:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23036518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abyssal_Agito/pseuds/Abyssal_Agito
Summary: A secret pact between two different prestigious senshado team brought their two leaders to undertake a secret trial to show which of the two are fitting of their position, set in a lake that would test their everything...
Kudos: 8





	Trial of Water

"Have you heard of the saying, 'The sea is dangerous and its storms terrible, but these obstacles have never been sufficient reason to remain ashore?'"

" _Non_ , but it sounds familiar. Who said that?"

"Ferdinand Magellan."

Darjeeling and Marie, the two commanders of St Gloriana Girls College Senshado team and the BC Freedom High School Senshado team respectively stood side by side in their bikinis of choice on a wooden jetty that extends out into a particularly large lake in a surrounded by lush green trees and towering mountains, looked at one another as they make their brief introductory exchange of words.

" _Ah ! Je vois._ " Marie nodded before looking away.

In this somewhat secluded location far from most human habitation, the two heads of their own respective senshado team got together in secret to uphold and partake in a tried and true tradition long ratified in a treaty by their forebears when the school ships were first set to sail the seas.

To reflect the changing environment of academia, the school's senshado team proposed a trial between the two that espouses a sense of honing a leader's skill on the high seas, for being prepared for any environment is a part of the Way of the Tank. Together, they would challenge each other in the Trials of Water, a set of challenges that tests their mettle when in water here in the lake before them.

While Darjeeling was all the more eager about this agreement in her own self-assured way as was her wont, Marie was the complete opposite, staring balefully at the lake in front of them with a finger on her lips in nonchalant contemplation of indifference whether she should be here at all. 

_"Mon dieu_. To think we have to swim in this lake for something agreed back in the past." Marie sighed, shaking her head and the tuft of ponytail she had tied back. "And I only just washed and treated my hair last night."

"Oh, do cheer up, Marie." Darjeeling tried to assure the slightly shorter girl tartly, running a hand through her own chest-length blond hair which was usually braided and tied up. "Though I do agree this will do quite a number on our hair, this is part of senshado as well." She acknowledged, stepping forward towards the edge of the jetty.

Not one to be upstaged by a competitor, Marie casually followed suit to step forward to the edge, standing slightly ahead of St Gloriana's commander who noticed with a bemused smile but said nothing, for she was trying to memorize the tasks at hand that could make or break the outcome of this trial. 

"Are you ready then?" Darjeeling inquired, her body tensing at the ready.

"Whenever you are, _mon amie_." Marie asserted with a long, tall stretch of her entire frame.

"Get set, go!" Darjeeling then announced, jumping forward and diving down headfirst into the water, with Marie not far behind with her had above her head as she dives into the water as well.

Despite the aptly titled Trial of Water which is basically a swimming marathon across the widest breadth of the appointed lake on paper, the course the girls must take to swim across covers the length of the three standard branches of military service by a certain association. Their first jump and dive into the water, and their initial descent ever down deep underwater first brought them upon the ruins of an old town starting at the edge of a slope of the lake shore that expands several kilometers around it to where an old large military base also stood once. At the edge of this military base, was an old military radio tower long forgotten and rusting. A great length of its top had broken off and fell on to the ruins of the town and leaving a jagged four point edges where it had broken off like curled fingers reaching for the surface, and it was along the fallen length of it that the two girls were now swimming along several meters above it and the town towards the tower which was their first checkpoint.

Strong and steady they swam towards their first goal, with Marie taking the lead with speed belying her seemingly un-athletic demeanor. The kick of her legs and the stroke of her arms propelling her through the water like a torpedo. Darjeeling meanwhile kept an even albeit slower pace several seconds behind Marie, unaffected by the gap between them so early in this Trial.

It didn't come to a surprise when Marie first reached and tapped the tallest point of the tower before ascending towards the surface right away, bubbles trailing from her mouth as she releases them in trickles on the way up, followed by Darjeeling not far behind. And so, Marie broke the surface with a gasp for air first before Darjeeling, making her the irrevocable winner of the first leg of the trial.

Without looking at each other for approval or anything yet, the two girls tread water at the surface, with Marie breathing in and out slightly harder and faster than Darjeeling was which tells that she had exerted herself a bit to get the lead at the cost of needing to normalize her breath longer for the next undoubtedly longer leg. Darjeeling who remained calm as ever, threw a sideways glance and a smirk at the corner of her mouth to her competitor before she took one deep breath before bending herself over and lowering herself down into the water and jackknifing her legs as she dives down into the depths once more. 

Marie did not miss the smirk. Undaunted by Darjeeling going under first, Marie snorted and rolled her eyes with no one looking, and after collecting her breath, she too dove down in time to see Darjeeling's retreating, kicking back still not far below the surface heading towards the next checkpoint of their trial.

Someway ahead below, the old military base had a large river cut through it once where ships would often sail through. One such ship was a large riverine patrol ship that sank beneath the waves when the area flooded once upon a time, its bow stuck in the muddy river bank where it once patrolled and now did so forever. This was their next checkpoint which the girls were now contesting to reach to, which unlike the broken tower, lies near the bottom of the already deep lake. This sunken ship of a forgotten era, was the 'sea' branch of the trial.

Darjeeling was the first to reach the ship, swimming up to the stern and grabbing hold of the railing on the edge but not quite ready to head back up yet. Ahead of her, was a doorway leading inside which she swam towards. She peers into the dark interior with her eyebrows furrowed, the first sign of trepidation coming from her. Dark and cramped spaces in a tank was one thing, but to be several meters deep underwater as well was another. Truly this Trial challenges everything in a tank commander. 

Shaking her head to clear away her own doubts, Darjeeling then kicked her legs once more and swam into the doorway and down the dark corridor inside. The metal walls on either side, and the ceiling and floor above and below felt oppressive and confining as one would expect. Swimming through bulkheads after bulkheads, Darjeeling almost lost count of them as she swims deeper in still with no end in sight. Compounded with the fact that she was so far down with her lungs starting to burn a little with a pang, one would expect this part of the trial would be ending shortly, depending on the outcome.

Darjeeling started to feel the first demanding insistence of her lungs trying to override her holding her breath, her chest convulsing several times in rapid succession which caused her to involuntarily mewl for release when there were none so close yet. As she passed through another doorway that leads into a large room, Darjeeling suddenly burbled, unable to contain herself any longer and shot up towards the ceiling and pushed her head up into a waiting air-pocket gasping for a relieving breath that cooled her chest and lungs. Her gasps and ensuing soft coughing echoed in the small chamber she was alone in.

When it occurred to her that Marie still hasn't joined her when she should, Darjeeling was beginning to wonder where the other girl was and if she was alright when she felt a hand suddenly touched her leg, causing her to scream with surprise even as she was dragged under it with a froth of air bubbles billowing out of her open, screaming mouth before she managed to kick free of the hand or it let go of for her to swim back up into the air pocket sputtering and panicking.

Off to her side, Marie surfaced gasping while watching the supposedly calm St Gloriana commander lose her cool for the first time, much to her hidden glee which Darjeeling could sense even behind her seemingly calm facade.

"You... twat!" Darjeeling fumed hotly at the girl who was no doubt the culprit behind the surprise, splashing water at Marie's face in a not-so veiled attempt of retaliation which the girl only cringed with eyes closed before uselessly wiping away the water from her eyes. "What are you thinking doing something like that here?!" She bellowed, her voice echoing twice as loud in the air pocket.

" _Pardonne-moi,_ I couldn't hold my breath any longer and just grabbed whatever was in front of me to pull myself up. Not my fault you were there." Marie deigned ignorance innocently, throwing a hurt look at Darjeeling's pithy accusation.

Darjeeling immediately felt sorry and chastised herself inwardly at actually losing her temper too soon for once, though she still wouldn't forgive the other girl right away even if it wasn't done on purpose. "Just... be careful, alright?" She insisted in more ways than one once she calmed herself down before turning away, listening only to their audible hurried breathing and gasping.

After a few more seconds of waiting, Darjeeling without waiting dove down once more into the water and swam into another adjacent corridor that they came through to get here so far, with Marie following likewise not too far this time. The corridor this time came to a shorter end than the entryway, and they finally exited the shipwreck on the opposite side and continued swimming forward towards their next and last checkpoint that covers the 'air' aspect of the challenge.

From across the former river, the other half of the the sunken military base was composed of a fairly large airfield with wrecks and debris of old airplanes littered all over. The only debris of exceptional size was a still somewhat intact large bomber aircraft that had crashed head on into the base of the airfield's control tower: their last course is to swim through the wreck of the crashed bomber, and swim up and out of the control tower before reaching the surface.

Being the last stretch of trial, the two girls proverbially slips into their high gear even though they are barely aware of it themselves or the other. Their kick and strokes were faster, harder, more focused on their singular goal to finish it first. Up ahead, they could the gaping hole of the rear fuselage of the crashed bomber where the tail assembly should have been, sheared off during its untold crash landing and settling not far from it somewhere half hidden by the silt.

Marie managed to catch up to Darjeeling, and both girls were neck and neck to reach the wreckage first at their current breakneck pace, with her slowly poised to overtake Darjeeling with her seemingly elegant yet powerful strokes. Slowly noticing Marie next to her, Darjeeling still somehow managed to tap into a reserve of strength she didn't know she had to push herself just a tiny bit more to overtake Marie and finally reached out to touch the jagged edge of the bomber wreckage first much to Marie's surprise who stopped outside the opening to let Darjeeling pull herself into the bomber much to consternation with an obvious pout.

Darjeeling of course, couldn't help but smirk inwardly a little at taking a deciding lead over Marie. Her own little satisfaction and payback for the scare back at the ship, but only just that. She continued her swim inside the bomber wreckage that was littered with broken pieces of metal plating and other unrecognizable debris and silt. Unlike the ship, the interior of the bomber wreck was far smaller and cramped so she and Marie now not far behind after following in as well, are forced to swim at a crawl's pace towards the cockpit which despite the severity of its crash and embedding half of it inside a building, was not crushed much as one would think.

Which was fortunate as the only way to exit the bomber from the front was through what remains of the cockpit, which was dark and covered with debris and wreckage on the outside with only two visible holes in the cockpit hatch leading somewhere above which limits their choice. 

Naturally, being in the lead, as soon as she swam under the holes and pondering for a bit, Darjeeling picked the one further ahead from the other which she surmised she can fit through, reaching up and pushing herself hand first through it with her chest brushing and bouncing against the edge of the hole which she then pulls herself out of with a bit of trouble but succeeding to float above the cockpit and in the ruined concrete tower interior.

Burbling a thin stream of bubbles of air from her mouth to ease the growing burning in her chest which heaved once as a sign for air, Darjeeling only managed to see a pair of hands reach out from the other hole before she turns to swim upwards, considering this trial now over with her as the obvious winner, even if there's still the ruined control room at the top of the tower to maneuver around before they could finally reach surface.

Just as Darjeeling kicked herself off the top of the bomber wreckage, she felt something touch and brush against the sole of her feet briefly which shocked and tickled her, causing her to involuntarily burble with surprise and knocking her head on a small concrete outcrop she could have avoided with a small thud and causing her to burble some more at the pain, her air dancing and fluttering upwards. 

Grimacing inwardly at herself, the seething anger she thought she could control earlier welled up once more past her surprisingly short breaking point today, and she instantly snapped her head downward to glare daggers or worse at the likely culprit-

-and finding Marie only appearing halfway out of the hole she had chosen to exit through, coming out only up to her hips with the rest of her still under the hatch. She was visibly struggling to push herself out of the hole to no avail, and she looked up and wave to Darjeeling for help, her cheeks puffing slightly with minute trail of bubbles somehow escaping between them.

Darjeeling was unsure at what she was seeing. Marie continued to struggle and shake incessantly in her entrapment some more before pointing at the spot where she was plainly stuck. Her face was a mask of slight worry at her predicament, and when her chest heaved and she unconsciously coughed up a bit of bubbles from her mouth which she reflexively covered with a hand did Darjeeling realized this was something serious and not a prank any more.

She swam down and grabbed hold of Marie’s outstretched arm, and bracing herself with her two feet planted on the roof of the wreck, tries to pull her up yet still Marie wouldn’t budge an inch, instead eliciting a pained moan from Marie as the metal edge dug slightly into her flesh. Darjeeling instantly let go at that, and thought better, instead of trying to pull her out, she tries to put both her hand on Marie’s shoulder and push her down instead. 

Still Marie wouldn’t move, as if the wreck had a firm grip on the girl that had dared to trespass its interior and not wanting to let her go just yet. Marie tried to push and pull herself out some more, waving and struggling at anything to get herself out while Darjeeling could only watch. Do doubt Marie was nearing her limit and so was she herself. She contemplated heading for the surface to get some air for herself before trying to come down again to help Marie, but the thought of leaving her down here when she was almost to her breaking point kept her anchored nearby.

Not one to give up so easily just yet, Darjeeling instead ducked and lowered herself down the hole she had come out of, re-entering the bomber once more even as her lungs were aching for a breath. She swam over the short distance to the other hole where Marie was stuck in with her legs wildly kicking about slightly, and wrapped her arms around the other girl’s waist from the front and braced herself a bit against Marie’s knees kicking into her chest. Pressing the side of her head on Marie’s lower abdomen, she could feel the convulsion of Marie’s stomach and hear her inward moans and grunts as she desperately tries to escape while her air grew dangerously thin in her lungs.

With all the strength she could muster, Darjeeling tugged at Marie and tried to pull her down instead. This time, she could feel the girl budge down slightly yet not enough, thwarted by Marie still trying to pull herself up from above. _Stop struggling, you fool,_ Darjeeling thought dizzily, realizing what was going on yet still sought to try and pull Marie down, harder this time while pushing herself downward with a free hand on the ceiling.

Even in her oxygen deprived mental state, it finally dawned on Marie what Darjeeling was trying to do underneath, and likewise stopped herself struggling, leaving with only her heaving chest, and slowly allowing herself to be pulled down by her erstwhile competitor. Darjeeling grunted as she pushed and pulled, not noticing right away that her attempts were working finally, and after a few more burbly grunts, Marie’s upper body finally re-appeared under the hole, drifting downwards to the bottom of the bomber with Darjeeling still around her waist.

Darjeeling finally let go when her feet finally touched the floor which kicks up a bit of the silt covering it. She then swam up, reaching up to pull Marie by the hand to lead her to the hole she had used earlier to get out of the wreckage now. Marie, with her mouth still covered, was only too eager to let Darjeeling do so as she was craving desperately for air. A stronger, harder convulsion then hit her, causing bubbles of air to explode from her open mouth before she could even reach the hole as her lungs finally gave out and her body instinctively inhaled, only for her to suck in a lungful of water with a sickening gurgle that Darjeeling heard and turn back to just as Marie’s eyes flew wide open ins surprise at what she had just done.  
  
Marie instantly shot up to the ceiling, pulling Darjeeling a bit as well who was still holding onto her hand before forcibly letting go, clawing and banging against the ceiling to get to the air above somewhere. Darjeeling choked back wide eyed at seeing the other girl drowning, and tried to grab her to calm her down and maybe pull her out of the bomber before it’s too late. Marie instead lashed out, unconsciously throwing a slap across Darjeeling’s face before grabbing hold of her neck and some of her hair in a death grip, shaking and pushing the other girl down for help to release her from this watery prison of theirs. 

Darjeeling instead fought to release Marie’s grip on her, scared and horrified by Marie’s sudden constant gurgling and convulsing as she tries to draw air from somewhere into her flooded lungs. Her blond locks flowing wildly around her head, she tried desperately to pull at the hand shaking and squeezing her neck but Marie’s grip in her drowning throes was unnaturally strong no matter how much she tried, even resorting to scratching and digging into other girl’s arms with her fingernails which only made the grip on her neck harder. Her head dazed and dizzy from the wild shaking and obstructed blood flow in her neck to her brain, the pain was so unbearable that she instinctively coughed, releasing some air somehow stuck in her throat before she couldn’t help herself from inhaling for air when there was none. Her mind screamed at herself and at Marie for what she had done as her body spasmed and jerked in her own drowning throes as she continues to suck in water into her lungs.

 _Je suis désolé..._ Marie managed to apologize in her own thoughts uselessly.

Her strength finally leaving her, Marie’s struggle and grip on Darjeeling stopped and loosened, and she floated almost lifelessly before the drowning Darjeeling with her eyes half closed and her hands still outstretched in front of her with a few stray spasms still wracking her body. Darjeeling instead grabbed her own throat trying to stop herself from sucking in more water to no avail. The sight of Marie having drowned and her eyes glaze over in front of her only horrified Darjeeling more even as her body slowly shuts down as well. She inhaled once more, jerked, and came to a halt with one final spasm of her body and a bubbly groan as it tried to breathe one last time. Her last thought as she drifts inexplicably forward into Marie’s open arms was that they probably shouldn’t have taken this trial after all, and her mind went blank as she fell into a nightmarish unconsciousness for good. 

Silence descended on the dark bomber interior once more, as the light of life left the two girls who entered it after the unfortunate turn of event, their bodies embracing in their last moments as they drift down to lay still and unmoving on the floor where they will be forever undiscovered for the trial was supposed to be done in secret that not even their closest friends knew where the two leaders went and disappeared to, and sending a shocking ripple across the community and leaving only a mystery waiting to be discovered at the bottom of a lake...


End file.
